The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama
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Authors: Nigel Cliff
Tags: #History, #General, #Religion, #Christianity, #Civilization, #Islam, #Middle East, #Europe, #Eastern, #Renaissance
The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama
Nigel Cliff
Atlantic Books (2012)
Rating: ★★★★★
Tags: History, General, Religion, Christianity, Civilization, Islam, Middle East, Europe, Eastern, Renaissance
Historyttt Generalttt Religionttt Christianityttt Civilizationttt Islamttt Middle Eastttt Europettt Easternttt Renaissancettt
In 1498 a young captain sailed from Portugal, circumnavigated Africa, crossed the Indian Ocean, and discovered the sea route to the Indies, opening up access to the fabled wealth of the East. It was the longest voyage known to history; the ships were pushed to their limits, their crews were racked by storms and devastated by disease. However, the greatest enemy was neither nature nor the fear of venturing into unknown worlds. With blood-red Crusader crosses emblazoned on their sails, the explorers arrived in the heart of the Muslim East at a time when the old hostilities between Christianity and Islam had intensified. In two voyages that spanned six years, Vasco da Gama would fight a running sea battle that would ultimately change the fate of three continents. The Last Crusade is an epic tale of spies, intrigue, and treachery; of bravado, brinkmanship, and confused - often comical collisions - between cultures encountering one another for the first time. With the world once again tipping back East, The Last Crusade offers a key to understanding age-old religious and cultural rivalries resurgent today.
THE LAST
CRUSADE
ALSO BY NIGEL CLIFF
The Shakespeare Riots:
Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America
First published in the United States of America in 2011
by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York.
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.
Copyright © Nigel Cliff, 2011
The moral right of Nigel Cliff to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback ISBN: 978 1 84887 017 8
Trade paperback ISBN: 978 1 84887 018 5
EBook ISBN: 978 0 85789 774 9
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Atlantic Books
An imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd
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26–27 Boswell Street
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For Viviana
CONTENTS
C
HAPTER 12
Dangers and Delights
C
HAPTER 13
A Venetian in Lisbon
C
HAPTER 14
The Admiral of India
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. North Africa from the Catalan Atlas of 1375 by Abraham Cresques
(Bibliothèque nationale de France)
2. The world according to a Catalan map of c. 1450
(Biblioteca Estense, Modena)
3. Three representatives of the Monstrous Races, illustration by the Maître d’Egerton from Marco Polo’s
Livre des Merveilles
, c. 1410–12
(Bibliothèque nationale de France)
4. Henricus Martellus’s world map of 1489
(The British Library)
5. The 1453 siege of Constantinople, illustration by Jean Le Tavernier from the
Voyage d’Outremer
by Bertrandon de la Broquière, c. 1458
(Bibliothèque nationale de France)
6. Henry the Navigator, from the mid-fifteenth-century Polytriptych of St. Vincent by Nuno Gonçalves
(Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)
7. Miniature of Manuel I, from the
Leitura Nova
of Além-Douro, 1513
(Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon/Bridgeman Art Library)
8. Wedding portrait of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, c. 1469
(Convento MM. Agustinas, Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila/Bridgeman Art Library)
9. Portrait of Vasco da Gama
(Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa)
10. The
São Gabriel
, from the
Memórias das Armadas
of 1568
(Academia das Ciências, Lisbon/Bridgeman Art Library)
11. Sixteenth-century mural from the Veerabhadra Temple, Lepaskhi, Andhra Pradesh
(SuperStock)
12. The Cantino Planisphere of 1502
(Biblioteca Estense, Modena)
13. The
Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai
, circle of Joachim Patinir, c. 1540
(National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
14. Portrait of Vasco da Gama, c. 1524, school of Gregório Lopes
(Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)
15. Lisbon in 1572 from the
Civitates Orbis Terrarum
by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg
(Heidelberg University Library)
16. The Portuguese in Goa, late sixteenth-century engraving by Johannes Baptista van Doetechum from the
Itinerario
of Jan Huygen van Linschoten
(Bridgeman Art Library)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
T
HIS STORY SPANS
three continents and more centuries, and most of the people and places in it have been known by different names, at different times, and in different languages. Fittingly perhaps, Vasco da Gama has never been rechristened; I give his family name as Gama in the Portuguese manner, though some historians have preferred da Gama or Da Gama. In most cases—not least that of Gama’s great rival, born Cristoforo Colombo, but called Cristóvão or Cristóbal Colón in his adopted Portugal and Spain—choices have had to be made. Where a well-established English name exists, it is given; where one does not, Western names are given according to prevailing usage in the language in question, while non-Western names are transcribed in their simplest and most recognizable form.